


Perks of Already Being Half-Dead

by ongoingaccident



Category: Elder Scrolls, Elder Scrolls Online
Genre: F/M, I dunno how to tag things, OC Angst and Fluff Week 2019, OC: Raewyn Corellius, Vestige: Aellai Darrell, ae stop being dumb 2k19, i don't know how to write summaries, mild spoilers for bangkorai mq, needs to stop almost dying, no beta we die like men, she shows up but she's not really there, the title is bad i'm sorry, there's death but not permanent death you know
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-15
Updated: 2019-09-15
Packaged: 2020-10-19 06:21:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,130
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20652605
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ongoingaccident/pseuds/ongoingaccident
Summary: Being soulless has some upsides occasionally. But coming back to life isn't pleasant.





	Perks of Already Being Half-Dead

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Day 7 of OC Angst and Fluff Week 2019: Character Death/Near-Death Experience. /Technically/ this is both. Hope you enjoy!!! :)

It was supposed to be a simple assignment, yet, as Darien had noted earlier, nothing that she was involved with was ever so simple as it seemed. She stood next to Queen Arzhela throughout the parley, and was glad for it when Imperials began pouring out of the three separate entrances to the small clearing.

And, she thought as another bolt of lightning flickered overhead and Pyreth howled, she was glad Rae was watching over them and directing the other mages.

Particularly when the Imperials didn’t stop coming. Wave after wave of them flooded from the gates, and it was all she could do to keep stray blades away from the queen, let alone go on the offensive.

Finally, they started to slow, and the mages portaled down to them to help get everyone to safety. And that was when, out of the corner of her eye, she saw the Imperial about to strike Darien from behind.

Before she could even think, she had pushed him out of the way and watched with wide eyes as the Imperial sword was pushed in under her breastplate and diagonally up through her heart.

The man who stabbed her was dead a moment later as Darien cut him down in retaliation, and then she was being forced through a portal before she could protest - she could see a fresh wave of Imperial soldiers coming, and she needed to help, but the thought was fleeting.

Everything blurred at the edges as she emerged into Evermore Castle, the queen ahead of her and the rest of the guard behind her. Relief flooded through her when she realized that everyone had made it back alive, and she sank to the ground as the world started spinning.

She’d done this before, and she knew how it would go. Overwhelming pain would be her sole companion for the next few hours, particularly when her body started to piece itself back together, and then she would be none the worse for wear. There were some benefits to having been sacrificed at the altar of a vicious Daedra, as it turned out.

So now she just had to find somewhere where she could rest until the bleeding stopped- “What were you thinking?” Darien was crouched in front of her, panic in his eyes, and behind him Ae could see the hazy figures of the queen, Rae, Gabrielle, and everyone else who had come with them. And, if she wasn’t mistaken, that was her king behind them. Great.

“I’m fine,” she insisted, voice thankfully steady, even as she trembled and it started to become hard to breathe. “I’ve had worse.” Debatable, but she thought it likely. The Lightless Remnant had done far more horrifying things to her body than a blade could do.

“You were stabbed!” He pressed his hands to the spots on her front and back that the sword had pierced, and she leaned into them as another wave of pain wracked her body and she tried not to whimper.

“Darien, she’s not going to make it. No healing spell can fix this kind of damage,” Gabrielle said softly, sadly, as she placed a hand on his shoulder, but he didn’t listen to her.

“I’m taking her downstairs to the healers.” His voice was firm, as if daring anyone to argue with him, and he scooped her up gently, so gently.

Sound started to be replaced by white noise in her ears, and she knew the moment of blackness before the pain became overwhelming was coming. Over Darien’s shoulder, she could see Raewyn explaining what had happened to the High King.

“I’m okay,” she murmured again, leaning her head onto Darien’s shoulder (which was extremely uncomfortable with his pauldrons in the way, but relatively speaking felt nice).

He scoffed dismissively, but didn’t stop heading down the stairs slowly, trying to avoid jostling her.

His fears were fairly founded, she knew. After the fight with Montclair, when her body had been ruined by the Lightless Remnant, Verandis had sent her fading body out of the Doomcrag. She had been unconscious when everyone found her, and when she woke after what felt like hours of crippling pain, they told her how miraculous her recovery had been. How they’d found her with her pulse too faint to feel, but that she’d managed to pull through.

Aellai knew better. There was no way that she had survived the Doomcrag. No way that any mortal could have. But the whole “not-having-a-soul” thing apparently made dying (again) a little less permanent than it typically was.

She hadn’t seen it necessary to tell everyone else. They were all so pleased with her astounding recovery, and there was no reason to concern them or even to explain the particulars of her condition to those who didn’t know. It seemed it might be coming back to bite her in the ass now, though.

Darien gently lowered her onto one of the cots in the queen’s makeshift hospital. (That had been a change Arzhela had made while she was driving out the Reachmen. The queen cited a desire to still help, but it was easier to do so if the injured were in the castle so petitioners and advisors could find her when she was needed.) She could hear him arguing with one of the healers, but the words were too muddied to make out.

After a minute, the din faded, and he sat on the ground next to her cot, looking more concerned than she had ever seen him.

The healer came over, and through the blurriness, she made out the general gist of what the woman was saying. Wound too great, death inevitable, nothing she could do about it.

Darien seemed about to argue with her, but Aellai used the minimal strength she had remaining to reach out a hand to stop him. He didn’t say anything, just took her palm in both of his and avoided her eyes. “Please stay,” she whispered, and he squeezed her hand in what she took to be assent. “I’ll be okay, I promise.”

His chest heaved, but with his eyes downcast she couldn’t tell if it was a sob or a laugh. “I never took you for a liar,” he said, and as she shut her eyes, she felt his hand gently moving hair out of her face.  
The blackness that followed swiftly after felt momentary. There was a flash of Coldharbour, a reminder of where she came from, and when it disappeared, she snapped back into herself with a painful clarity.

This was actually the more painful part, as she had noticed the last time this happened. Slowly, so very slowly, her body began to force itself back together.

She stifled a whimper as she clenched Darien’s hand, and he jumped but squeezed back.

Another wave of pain hit her and she groaned. When it subsided from a sharp, excruciating pain to a steady, throbbing ache, she tried to speak. “It’ll be a few hours,” she managed. “You can go.” He didn’t need to see her like this.

He started at that and pulled one of his hands away from hers and placed it on her back. She must have been unconscious for longer than she’d thought, because they’d stripped her armor and bandaged her wounds.

Seemingly unsatisfied with whatever he had been searching for, he sat back down. “I don’t know if you’re trying to say what I think you are, but I’m not leaving until this is over. One way or another.”

And, true to his word, he stayed. Occasionally, when the pain wasn’t too overwhelming, she heard him murmuring to other people, but none of them stayed very long. Only Darien, who alternated between holding her hand in both of his and smoothing back her hair when her face screwed up in pain.

The minutes ticked by slowly, and nearly ground to a halt when whatever magic kept her alive finished with her skin and moved on to stitching up her heart. She tried not to scream when the pain became blinding, but she couldn’t be sure if she was successful. Those moments were a blur, and they passed excruciatingly slowly. The brief respites she had in the middle of the sea of pain were spent alternately cursing Molag Bal and praying for death, and she hoped that all of the nonsense she was spouting was contained in her head - but again, it was impossible to know.

Eventually, that pain also dulled and faded into nothingness, and once Aellai was finally certain that it was over, that her body had finished piecing itself back together, she sighed in relief and dared to crack open her eyes.

The room was blessedly empty save Darien, who had removed his armor at some point and was staring at her, seemingly torn between relief and disbelief. “You know, I was going to be so mad that you died saving my life,” he finally said, and she allowed herself to smile as much as she could manage.

He grinned back at her and squeezed her hand with one of his as the other gently brushed away a stray lock of hair that was clinging to her face. “You really must have died and come back wrong if you’re going to start smiling now.”

The thought of laughing and rattling her chest hurt, so she smothered her chuckle as she tried to sit up and was immediately hit with a wave of nausea. Darien let go of her hand to help lay her back down on the cot. “Calm down, you were just run through. You need to rest for a while. Everything else can wait.”

She settled back onto the bed with a resigned sigh. “I must say,” she managed to get out through her hoarse throat. “That is never pleasant.”

Darien sat back down next to her head and frowned. “You don’t make a habit of being stabbed, do you?”

Ae shook her head, but that made everything spin. “Don’t be silly. But it’s happened once before,” she said instead. “Suffering an injury my body can’t sustain.” Words were difficult, but she managed.

He frowned harder. “It was the Doomcrag, wasn’t it? We all thought you’d recovered from the brink of death, but you didn’t. You died, but the no soul thing meant that you came back.”

Smart man. She didn’t bother trying to nod. “As far as I can tell.” Not that the threat of a permanent death would have changed any of her actions, either at the Doomcrag or here. People had needed her, and regardless of how much the recovery hurt, it was worth every second. Ae allowed herself a brief moment of sadness as she thought that she would have suffered that pain a hundred times over if it could have kept Verandis with them.

But there was no use dwelling. The time to invade Coldharbour was coming, she was sure of it. And when it came, she would find the Count. Until then, she needed to focus on the here and now.

Which was Darien shaking his head at her in what appeared to be a mix of awe and disbelief. “You had us all worried sick. I thought the High King was going to stick my head on a pike for getting you killed. The man accused me of having no chivalry! Me!” He looked a little exasperated at the thought.

Oh gods. She wasn’t particularly surprised, but that didn’t really soften the blow. She groaned. “He wouldn’t have. Not really. He’d just blather about it until he calmed down.” Her uncle was as predictable as he was sarcastic. Except a lot of people who didn’t know him well had trouble picking up on the sarcasm - which she was inclined to believe was intentional on Emeric’s part.

Darien grinned again at her. “I figured as much. Still glad you survived, though.” He paused for a moment before gently brushing her hair back once more. “I can’t wait to see the look on Gabrielle’s face when I tell her.”

When Aellai started trying to sit up again, he laid her gently back down once more. “I don’t think so. You need rest, former captain’s orders. The world will still need you to save it when you wake up.”

Ae knew how fondly she was staring at him, but she couldn’t stop herself. “Thank you,” she said with a gentle squeeze of his hand. “And thank you for staying with me throughout that,” she murmured as she shut her eyes again.

Darien laughed lowly as he gently removed his hand from hers. “I’ll always stay. What else are friends for?” There was a soft pressure at the top of her head, and suddenly sleep claimed her.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed! Feel free to hit me up on tumblr @ongoingaccident for more garbage and inane rambling!


End file.
